Gangsters -- Fiction; Saturn (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Space stations -- Fiction
As Vicenzo's spacesuited figure appeared below in the doorway, Henry
swung his arm. The spanner clanged against the back of Vicenzo's
helmet. The man tumbled across the compartment into the netting. The
rocket launcher whirled from his hands, struck the ceiling, and bounced
to the deck.
Slashing upward with his knife, Aziz twisted into the compartment.
Henry met the thrust with the spanner and knocked the knife from the
squat man's hand. Aziz bellowed, "Ya greasy cube! I'll squash ya!"
Aziz swung his gauntleted fist. Henry struck Aziz across the arm with
the spanner, denting the metal of the spacesuit. Vicenzo jerked his
head from a box and roared, "Get him! He busted my skull!"
Henry jumped from the net to the corner beside the desk. The two men
slowly stalked him. Vicenzo had his knife, and Aziz experimentally
flexed his metal-sheathed hands.
"We're going to fix you, Henry," Vicenzo promised. "You're just a
little smarter than you should be."
"He ain't smart atall," Aziz growled. "What for did ya want to turn
cube, Henry? I told ya yer name'd be in ever' yap, if ya stuck with us.
Now, nobody'll know ya when I get done."
Henry debated with himself, trying to decide if the situation justified
a falsehood. He said, "Get away while you can! Ranjit says he'll crash
this sweeper before he'll let you steal it! He's in the control room
now."
Aziz stopped and glanced around. "Ya think he will?" he asked.
"No," Vicenzo said. He circled to Henry's left.
Henry raised the spanner and kept his eyes on Vicenzo's knife. Aziz
moved to Henry's right. The deck seemed to tilt. Henry clutched a leg
of the desk to keep from falling.
Vicenzo and Aziz, waving their arms, leaned at an increasingly acute
angle. Their boots broke from the magnetic deck. They fell slowly,
accelerating at about two meters per second, and dropped into the
netted wall which had become the floor.
Henry dangled below what was now the ceiling. Objects fell from the
net beside him. Tools, machine parts, books, and canned food slowly
showered down on Vicenzo and Aziz, who thrashed and swore in the
growing junk heap.
"We're deceleratin'!" Aziz yelled. "That old man really is gonna kill
us! We'll crash on Saturn!"
"That hatch over the bunk!" Vicenzo said as he tried to stand. "That's
where they went! The control room!" A box of cans emptied over his
helmet.
"We're fallin'!" Aziz yelled. "It's forcin' us to the front of the
station! Let's get out!" He stumbled through the litter toward the
airvalve which was now up one wall.
Vicenzo said, "Look out that window! The stars are streaking! He's just
spinning the sweeper! It's centrifugal force!"
"It's deceleration!" Aziz insisted, jumping at the airvalve. The
dismantled teletype slipped from its clamps and fell on the man's head.
He slid back down the wall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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